If you have any questions please do not hesitate in contacting me Scott Godridge, 1st Line Service Desk Manager Scott.Godridge@capita.co.uk. We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our customers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and to say we look forward to working with you next year.

Spring School Census 2018

12/12/17

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You will find detailed guidance to support preparation and running of your census within the Returns Manager section of the SIMS Documentation Centre, via the Documentation link on the right hand side of your SIMS home page. A copy of the handbooks are included below for ease.

In addition to this you will receive your Customer Services Manager (CSM) guide via email. If you don’t receive regular communications from your CSM then do email the team via sims.csm@capita.co.uk. sims.csm@capita.co.uk

Reminders

For the Spring census a ‘snapshot’ of data as at selected period on census day (18th January 2018) is required for all classes. The selected time is based on the last digit of a school’s DfE establishment number. Details included below for your reference.
0, 1 or 5 = 1 hour / period after the start of morning school
2, 3 or 6 = 1 hour / period before the end of morning school
4,7,8 or 9 = 1 hour / period after the start of afternoon school

You need to have upgraded to the Autumn 7.178 release of SIMS in order to carry out this census return.

You will need to have fileset 801 imported to support accurate validation of your census. You can find the fileset along with instructions on how to import within the article below. Please note that at the time of this posting we do expect a further fileset so please check prior to finalising your census.

For Capita Hosted schools, the autumn release and fileset 801 have already been applied for you.

School Census Spring 2018 – Fileset 801

12/12/17

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Fileset 801 has been released for the Spring 2018 Census return and is provided within the files section at the end of this posting.

The Fileset contains the DfE Beta release of its validation and summary report and can be used to begin your validation process however the file contains some validation errors, details of the codes affected are noted below. We expect the DfE to provide updated information later this month so there will be a further fileset to correct these validation errors. We will update this site once this fileset is available so please ensure that you update your fileset prior to finalising your census submission

Error 1861: In Nursery Schools, this is being triggered for all pupils whose DOB is before 01/09/2012. In other schools, it is triggered for all pupils’ other than those with a DOB of the 01/09/2012.

Error 1853: This is being triggered for all pupils where EYPP eligibility should not be reported.

Error 2017: This is being triggered with the SEN code of “SEMH” is assigned to a pupil, but “SENH” should be an acceptable SEN code.

Query 1881Q: This is being triggered for pupils with attendance from 28/05/2017, when it should only be triggered for pupils with attendance from the beginning of the Spring Term.

Query 2502Q: This is being triggered for pupils with a DOA on or before 28/05/2017, when it should only be triggered for pupils with a DOA on or before the start of the Spring Term.

When there are any further updates to the fileset your Customer Service Manager will notify you and a copy will be posted on this site.

Instructions on how to import are provided below. There are now two ways to import your fileset.

For Capita HOSTED SIMS schools fileset 801 will be applied for you.

Option 1: follow the instructions below to import the file manually into SIMS

The file will be downloaded via the link below, if security warnings appear during the download, click Run/Open to proceed. If an additional security warning appears in your browser as the source could not be verified, click on Run to allow the download to proceed.

When this is complete, click unzip to automatically extract the file to the location C:\Downloaded Patches.

If using Windows 8 or above you may be presented with the error below .Please start the download process again but when presented with the self-extractor window please clear the “Unzip to folder” field and instead use the Browse button to choose a location to unzip the file to.

Files

SIMS 2017 Autumn Release

6/11/17

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The SIMS 7.178 and FMS 6.178 Autumn release is now available

The SIMS Autumn 2017 release is an essential upgrade in order to run the Spring 2018 census. In addition to the census the release contains several enhancements including a new Person Data Output Report to assist schools in producing Subject Access Request information. There is a new permission group ‘Data Protection’ to manage access to the report which could include sensitive information. You will need to assign this permission to a suitable user.

Upgrade Instructions The release is available for you to download from SOLUS 3.
Please note, for Capita Hosted schools, your upgrade will be carried out during the forthcoming weekend commencing Friday 10th November.

Reports Library Reminder:
Included in every release of SIMS is an updated set of pre-defined reports. To ensure your system has the latest reports available it is essential to import the reports following the steps below. This process should only take a few minutes to complete and would most commonly be carried out by the person who upgrades SIMS. Please note that we will carry out this process for schools with Capita Hosted SIMS. Within SIMS:

Click on Reports | Import

Click on the Open/browse button, usually your system will default to the appropriate location, if not navigate to the SIMS installation path (typically C:\Program Files\SIMS\SIMS .net)

Scroll down and highlight Predefined_Reports_7.178.RptDef and click on Open

Click on Import

Further support:
For full details regarding this release please refer to the Latest Release Information via the Documentation link on your Home page within SIMS and for FMS via Help | FMS Documentation | What’s New in this release, once you have upgraded.

Files

Admissions Processes 2017/18

03/11/17

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For Northamptonshire Schools

The following guidance notes have been produced in conjunction with NCC to support Northamptonshire schools in importing ADT and ATF files and admitting students prior to the new academic year 2018/19.

The documentation is now available for downloading to assist schools through the required processes for managing the Admissions process using the files provided by the Local Authority.

Guidance notes have been provided for schools who are responsible for their own admissions as well as separate guidance notes for those schools who are not responsible for their own admissions.

Dates supplied by NCC, with regard to availability of files, can be found at the front of the appropriate set of guidance notes.

Files

School Workforce Census - 2nd November 2017

9/10/17

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You will find detailed guidance to support preparation and running of your census within the Returns Manager section of the SIMS Documentation Centre, via the Documentation link on the right hand side of your SIMS home page. A copy of the Producing the School Workforce Census handbook and Validation Errors and Resolutions Summary are included below for ease.

In addition to this you will receive your Customer Services Manager (CSM) guide via email. If you don’t receive regular communications from your CSM then do email the team via sims.csm@capita.co.uk

Reminders:

You need to have upgraded to the Summer 7.176 release of SIMS in order to carry out this census return.

You will need to have fileset 704 imported to support accurate validation of your census. You can find the fileset along with instructions on how to import within the article below.

For Capita HOSTED SIMS schools the summer release and fileset 704 have already applied for you.

Files

School Census Autumn 2017 - Fileset 704

Fileset 704 has been released for the Autumn Census return and contains several changes to DfE validation and summary report. The file is provided within the files section at the end of this posting.

If there are any further updates to the fileset your Customer Service Manager will notify you and a copy will be posted on this site.

Instructions on how to import are provided below.

For Capita HOSTED SIMS schools fileset 704 will be applied for you.

The file will be downloaded via the link below, if security warnings appear during the download, click Run/Open to proceed. If an additional security warning appears in your browser as the source could not be verified, click on Run to allow the download to proceed.

When this is complete, click unzip to automatically extract the file to the location C:\Downloaded Patches.

If using Windows 8 or above you may be presented with the error below .Please start the download process again but when presented with the self-extractor window please clear the “Unzip to folder” field and instead use the Browse button to choose a location to unzip the file to.

Files

Autumn School Census 2017

27/9/17

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You will find detailed guidance to support preparation and running of your census within the Returns Manager section of the SIMS Documentation Centre, via the Documentation link on the right hand side of your SIMS home page. A copy of the handbooks are included below for ease.

In addition to this you will receive your Customer Services Manager (CSM) guide via email. If you don’t receive regular communications from your CSM then do email the team via. sims.csm@capita.co.uk

Reminders

You need to have upgraded to the Summer 7.176 release of SIMS in order to carry out this census return.

You will need to have fileset 704 imported to support accurate validation of your census. You can find the fileset along with instructions on how to import within the article above.

For Capita Hosted schools, the summer release and fileset 704 have already been applied for you

Important Update for Exams officers; Extended Service Desk Opening Hours on Results Day

22/8/17

Secondary

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Due to positive customer feedback we are pleased to announce that we will once again be extending the Enhanced Service Desk opening times for both the A level and GCSE Exam Result Days again this year.

Therefore the extended opening hours for the Enhanced Service Desk will be:

Wednesday August 16th – 7am to 5.30pmThursday August 17th – 7am to 5.30pmWednesday August 23rd – 7am to 5.30pmThursday August 24th – 7am to 5.30pm

Latest Examination Information for Results Day August 2017

17/8/17

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We hope for those schools with 6th form students your results day is going well. We wanted to ensure you were aware of the latest guidance published on My Account, a copy is attached below for your convenience.

Files

Please find below Summary advice for Summer Examinations Results 2017. This document should be used in conjunction with the Results Day Survival Kit(RDSK) for 2017 which was sent to you in July 2017 together with the Summer 2 Newsletter. If you would like a copy of the RDSK document, you can find this within the Examinations & Assessment section via Documentation link on the top right hand corner of your SIMS Home Page or a copy has been attached below.

Files

Important Information – Course Manager Update for summer release 2017

25/7/17

Secondary

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Timetable and Course Management Levels to help with AQA Technicals

Following a customer request, we have made patch 23208 available to add the following levels for use with AQA Technicals. The patch is available on request via the service desk. Contact details are provided below.

CTF Summer 7.176 Workstation Fix 1

There have been a couple of issues identified with CTF Exports within the Summer 7.176 release of SIMS.net.

Workstation fix 1 has now been created to resolve the issues of which are further detailed below:

1.When using shift-click and ctrl-click for multiple selections the selected records are not highlighted. Although once data is entered for one of the selected records it appears for all selected records as expected, we can see that the lack of highlighting makes the functionality very difficult to use.

When the effective date is entered for creating a joiners CME file, only pupils with a date of admission on or after the effective data and on or before the system should be included. Unfortunately, only the first part of this filter is being applied. So pupils with dates of admission "predicted" for the future can be included when they should not be. This is only of interest for schools in England.

This patch has been authorised via SOLUS to all customers with Enhanced Support contracts.

*For Hosted Schools - Please note we are currently in discussion regarding getting this applied to the platform.

Patch 23191 - Assessment / Profile Reports on Summer 7.176

12/7/17

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An issue has been identified affecting Assessment Manager Individual and Profile reports. The SIMS Summer (7.176) Upgrade has made updates to these areas and has impacted the digital signature on the Macros. We have now identified the root cause of the issue and have produced Patch 23191 to resolve the issue.

This patch has been authorised via SOLUS to all customers with Enhanced Support contracts.

Any further questions please contact the Service Desk, contact details are below.

*Please note if you are on our Capita Hosted platform we have applied this patch to the platform on 11th July 2017.

CSM webinar “Manage Pupil Premium within SIMS” – Tuesday 11th

5/7/17

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Webinars for our Enhanced Supported schools

Thank you to everyone who registered and attended our recent CSM webinar “Getting the most from SIMS reporting including SIMS Discover”. If you were unable to attend, the slides are available below. These 30 minute webinars are an opportunity to share SIMS top tips to help you gain the most from SIMS for you and your school.

Our next webinar is running on Tuesday 11th July - during this 30 minute webinar we will look at how you can manage Pupil Premium within SIMS, including how to check, update and maintain PP ticks to ensure the tracking of your Pupil Premium students is accurate.

How to book – you would have already received an email and link to book via your Customer Services Manager. This webinar is for our enhanced supported schools as part of your support contract. If you have any questions about the webinar, please contact your Customer Services Manager and they will be happy to help. If you don’t have your Customer Services Managers details then do email the team via sims.csm@capita.co.uk.

Files

End of Year Documentation

5/6/17

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At this time of year you will be reviewing and setting up your new Academic Year. It is essential that you have setup up your pastoral structure for 2017_18 before the end of this academic year. Below are the comprehensive guides support these important End of Year processes.

The Summary version provides a useful reminder for those who have carried out these processes several times before.

The Detailed version will provide you with clear step by step details and is ideal if you are new or have only carried these processes occasionally.

Files

Capita SIMS Hosted Security Standards

18/5/17

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The Capita ESS Hosted services (SIMS, Agora, InTouch, HSLG, etc.) are protected through the implementation of good maintenance practices and high security standards, therefore we would like to reassure our customers that these platforms are not at risk of being affected by the recent cyber-attacks. In particular, the following measures are in place:

Patching: Microsoft removed the vulnerability used by this malware through a patch released in March; we have applied the patches to our systems soon after they were released and we are therefore not affected by the vulnerability

Antimalware: Microsoft has released an update for their antimalware that will detect this malware; our antimalware is up-to-date, offering an additional layer of defence

The malware can’t get on our systems: the malware is activated by a user, e.g. by opening a web page in a browser or an attachment in an e-mail; this is not possible on our hosted systems

Segregation: our hosted systems are segregated from the end-user networks and between each other

Lock-down: systems like Hosted SIMS 7, where our customers have access to the servers to run SIMS, are strictly locked down, so users can only run our products; even if all the above failed and the malware got on the systems (and the antivirus didn’t remove it), nobody would be able to activate it

Backups: in the unlikely case that all the above failed, our backups are not accessible from the servers and are kept safe offsite, so if needed we would be able to recover the data

24/7 support: support personnel are on high-alert on a 24/7 basis; should anything anomalous be noticed, it will be investigated promptly

Customers are advised to promptly report any service issues to the Capita Service Desk.

Important Update; End of Key Stage 2017 guidance

25/4/17

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On behalf of Northamptonshire County Council , Capita have produced documentation relating to the statutory recording and return of End of Key Stage 1 and 2 data to include; Year 1 and Year 2 Phonics screening check and Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

Please ensure you download the relevant documentation for your school phase.

Summer School Census 2017

18/4/17

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You will find detailed guidance to support preparation and running of your census within the Returns Manager section of the SIMS Documentation Centre, via the Documentation link on the right hand side of your SIMS home page. A copy of the handbooks are included below for ease along with a detailed presentation from Jim Haywood(Product Manager).

Your Customer Services Manager has sent some additional guidance, if you have not received this please email sims.csm@capita.co.uk for a copy. Please note this is for those schools with an Enhanced Support contract. If you are not sure what support contract you have with us do email and we can confirm for you.

Reminders:

You need to have upgraded to the Spring 7.174 release of SIMS in order to be able to run this census return. For Capita HOSTED SIMS schools the upgrade has already been carried out for you

Fileset: the latest fileset as of 26th April is fileset 602 – released 25th April. For Capita HOSTED SIMS schools has been applied for you.

Guidance for National Insurance changes 2017/2018

20/3/17

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The confirmed rates for Employers National Insurance 2017/2018 is now available and has been provided below. If you have updated Personnel with the provisional rates provided last term you will need to update these to enable salary commitments in FMS to be calculated with the new rates. The rates can be amended via Tools | Staff | National Insurance Rates.

If you require any assistance please contact the Service Desk, contact details are below.

Files

School Census Spring 2017 - Selected Period

18/1/17

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As there is a “Selected Period” required in the January Spring 17 census return this will need to be entered in “Section 1. Selected Period on Census Day” (Routines | Statutory Returns | School Census).

The Selected Period requirements based on the last digit of the schools DfE establishment number for the return on the 19th January 2017 have been specified as per the below table issued in the DfE’s official guidance:

FREE SLT Webinars

7/11/16

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Delivered by education and SIMS experts, our 30 minute sessions help senior leaders to manage the on-going changes to primary education over this coming year by making the most of the SIMS they already have.

Each webinar will share best practice supporting school leaders in their roles and will be run two times a day - 1pm and 3:45pm.

Webinars running for the remainder of this term

Identifying and managing patterns of pupil absence - 09.11.2016

Primary assessment - 16.11.2016

How can SIMS help with the evolution of parental communication? - 30.11.2016

Admissions Processes 2016/17

21/10/16

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The following guidance notes have been produced in conjunction with NCC to support Northamptonshire schools in importing ADT and ATF files and admitting students prior to the new academic year 2017/18.

The documentation is now available for downloading to assist schools through the required processes for managing the Admissions process using the files provided by the Local Authority.

Guidance notes have been provided for schools who are responsible for their own admissions as well as separate guidance notes for those schools who are not responsible for their own admissions.

Dates supplied by NCC, with regard to availability of files, can be found at the front of the appropriate set of guidance notes.

Pupil Premium 2016

27/01/16

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Pupil premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and close the gap between them and their peers. This funding has been in place for several years now and evidence is showing that the gap is closing.

There is now also Early Years Pupil Premium as of 2015. Recent studies show that there is a 19 month gap in school readiness between the most and least advantaged children. In April 2015 Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) was introduced to support the closing of this gap for 3 and 4 years olds.

SIMS provides many ways to identify, track and monitor your Pupil Premium students. Your data within SIMS needs to be correct to enable accurate tracking of your Pupil Premium students. Your Customer Service Manager has provided the following to support you with this:

In addition to this an updated Report Definition File for DfE FSM Ever 6 at Spring Census 2016 v1.1 has been made available which can be imported into SIMS. This report can be run at any time and will list all your Ever6 eligble pupils as of January 2016 census. Please see the link below to download. Once you have downloaded you will need to save to a suitable location and import into SIMS via Report / Import.

Files

Revised North Somerset FMS report

28/11/11

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For North Somerset Schools

The latest version of FMS 6.142 requires a modification of the North Somerset specific summary report. Users will be familiar with the need to refresh this file after each FMS upgrade to put the North Somerset version of the file in place.

Before taking FMS 6.142, it is recommended that the existing shortcut on your desktop used to refresh the FMS file is deleted. This needs to be carried out on all workstations running FMS. When the shortcut is deleted, the new version can be downloaded.

Follow the detailed instructions to delete the existing files, download the revised files and created a new refresh shortcut.

Detailed instructions for the replacement of the North Somerset FMS report.

Self Extracting Files

When the new file has been put in place, the FMS 6.142 upgrade can proceed.

Once completed, use the desktop shortcut to refresh the revised North Somerset report.

Files

Revised North Somerset FMS report

28/11/11

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For North Somerset Schools

The latest version of FMS 6.142 requires a modification of the North Somerset specific summary report. Users will be familiar with the need to refresh this file after each FMS upgrade to put the North Somerset version of the file in place.

Before taking FMS 6.142, it is recommended that the existing shortcut on your desktop used to refresh the FMS file is deleted. This needs to be carried out on all workstations running FMS. When the shortcut is deleted, the new version can be downloaded.

Follow the detailed instructions to delete the existing files, download the revised files and created a new refresh shortcut.

Detailed instructions for the replacement of the North Somerset FMS report.

Self Extracting Files

When the new file has been put in place, the FMS 6.142 upgrade can proceed.

Once completed, use the desktop shortcut to refresh the revised North Somerset report.

Files

Download & Support

Using the site

Download upgrades and patches from this page only when advised by your local Capita support team.

Feel free to read any documentation, and make use of any utilities available.

Downloads are often applicable to certain audiences only. Below the article title is a list of the school types that require or can make use of the download.

Escalation points for the Service Desk

Should you wish to escalate any issue relating to the service you have received from the Service Desk please contact Lee Osmotherly or Ross Gylby the 1st Tier Service Desk Team Leaders in the first instance either on 0844 893 8000 or the email links above.

If you feel you would like to escalate your issue further please contact either the 1st Tier Service Desk Manager Scott Godridge or the 2nd Tier Escalations Manager Jean Mann.

We value your feedback and would encourage you let us know if the service you have received is meeting your expectations or if you have suggestions of ways we can look to improve. Please email simsfeedback@capita.co.uk or contact Simon Brunger Head of Enhanced User Support.